Finance and innovation on a date

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Innovation, a very fashionable word nowadays, in short refers to creating or improving a service, product, process and even practices that bring value to the organization and to the customers.  

by Valentina Ilie

Innovation is at the heart of competitiveness in any industry, and it is hardly an option, rather an obligation to have the ability to adapt to succeed.

Looking at the below illustration, we can observe that there has been a cyclicity of prosperous periods and recessions in the past 250 years. According to Carlota Perez, there are boom-and-bust episodes once-in-a-half-century, which regularly happen mid-way along the diffusion of each technological revolution (Andrea Pyka and Hans-Peter Burghof, 2014, after Perez Carlota, 2002).  We are now in the golden age of the 21^st century, enjoying technology but facing the challenge of keeping up with change in all its forms.

Fig 1. Bubble prosperities, recessions, and golden ages (Andrea Pyka and Hans-Peter Burghof, 2014, after Perez Carlota, 2011).

The finance divisions of shared service centers are now at the forefront of innovation, driving efficiency, compliance, and strategic value for all organizations. This transformation is of course fueled by technological advancements, process optimization, and the continuous pursuit of operational excellence.

In our Finance Shared Service Centre of Societe Generale Global Solution Centre, we expect our colleagues to contribute to innovation by openly sharing their experiences and proposing solutions based on their expertise.

Using technological advancements such as automation tools, artificial intelligence, cloud computing or solutions for process optimization like lean six sigma will make us, SG GSC, remain competitive in the market and offer the best possible services to our clients and partners. Of course, all these changes could not be done without the help of our colleagues. That is why, we are also investing in building knowledge or developing new skills that will enhance our teams’ abilities to work with many of these new technologies and tools. Individual impact may not be as high, but cumulative impact is significant.

Overall, integrating these technologies not only optimizes processes but also ensures that we are up to date with the national and international requirements, we are offering our colleagues the possibility to further develop their careers, to learn new skills and to adapt to the dynamic environment that is the financial service sector.

Innovation can also be focused on increasing efficiency.

Innovation can also be focused on increasing efficiency. For example, in our Finance Shared Service Centre of Societe Generale Global Solution Centre we managed to reduce the manual workload on the analytical review of several regulatory reports with up to 75% using either low-code technologies such as Alteryx/Power BI, or customised/bespoke automations using Python programming language.

Innovation in finance shared services centers is not just about adopting the latest technologies, it’s about rethinking process, enhancing strategic value, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. By embracing these innovations, companies can move beyond traditional roles and become critical enablers of business success, agility, and resilience in a rapidly changing world.

If it sounds interesting enough to you, join us in our journey of continuously innovating our work and become part of one of the Great places to work in Romania.

Bibliography: Andreas Pyka, Hans-Peter Bufghof, Innovation and Finance, Routledge Publishing House, 2014, https://www.google.fr/books/edition/Innovation_and_Finance/5dscAAAAQBAJ?hl=fr&gbpv=1&dq=innovation+in+finance&printsec=frontcover